COMM 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Organizational Communication, Organizational Culture, Jargon
3/6/18
Organizational communication
●Org comm involves
○People organized into formal hierarchy
○Pursuing multiple goals
○Within complex communication networks
●Organizational leadership
○How do bosses communicate
■Often take communication for granted
●Especially if trained in another area
■Often need to rely on official channels
●Requests, orders, memos, guidelines, policy statements
○“Management” vs “visionary leadership”
■“Manager”:
● asks how can we do this best
●Communication is to organize, control, accomplish tasks
■“Visionary”:
●Asks why should we do this at all?
●Communication is to listen, inspire, cultivate
○These people end up writing books and shit
■Usually you need both people
■“Transformative leader”
●Leader who is making big changes
●Often fails because people aren’t ready to change or don’t even ask
them to change, just tell
●A truly transformative leader is able to complete the change and
take the pushback to get the change going
●Is this something you can train?
●Organizational culture
○Shared beliefs, values of the organization, norms for working, interacting
○Some widespread organizational norms
■Ex: industry-wide jargon/ office speak
■Workplace traditions (casual friday)
○Some norms that are specific to one organization
○Org culture created, sustained & modified through:
■Stories and myths told
●Starts at interview - first impressions
●Other workers tell you stories
●You are trained
■Rituals and ceremonies
●Award ceremonies
●Graduation
